Joe Biden Makes Merch Great Again
Over the last five years, the most potent fashion symbol in American politics has been a hat. A crimson red hat emblazoned in what looks like default font with “Make American
Great Again,” a phrase stolen from Ronald Reagan’s 1980’s presidential campaign. The MAGA hat became a signifier for Donald Trump’s campaign and his supporters—so much so that fashion brands have tried (unsuccessfully) to subvert the cap and its slogan. But on Sunday, president-elect Joe Biden weaponized a half-decade of domed messaging to troll Trump with a hat of his own.
Biden’s hat, which appears in an image Jill Biden posted on Twitter and Instagram Sunday following her husband’s election win, reads “We Just Did.” To reference a popular Twitter meme, the hat is the “How It’s Going” conclusion to Trump’s “How It Started” cap—an answer to the president’s rallying cry. While many have attempted to riff on the success of Trump’s original — including Trump himself, who released “Keep America Great” caps this election cycle to much less fanfare—none were able to capture the prominence of the first. Biden’s hat works because it treats Trump’s message as incomplete and supplies a new ending.
Merch has actually been a fruitful source of trolling for Biden throughout his campaign. While the first presidential debate—the one dominated by Trump interruptions—was still in progress, Biden’s team started selling tees printed with the retort, “Will You Shut Up, Man?” At the time, GQ wrote that the merch is a good window into campaign strategy. “Will you shut up, man?” was merch gold because it accurately reflected what so many voters—75 million and counting—were feeling at the time. Biden’s hat does the same thing, so maybe what’s most surprising is that it’s not (yet) for sale—for now at least, it’s like an NBA star’s pair of player-exclusive sneakers.
Trump’s political career has coincided with a golden era for candidate merch. In 2016, Hillary Clinton’s supporters wore “Nasty Women” T-shirts and she teamed with designers like Marc Jacobs and Public School on exclusive items. And as his first and only presidential term is on its last legs, Trump is still moving merch, albeit of a slightly different nature. Following his campaign’s press conference at the Four Seasons… Total Landscaping on Saturday, merch made in the business’s honor is thriving.